


The Sunday Funnies

by Angelwire



Category: Skullgirls
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 10:22:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15727461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelwire/pseuds/Angelwire
Summary: In a much more normal world than their original one, Patricia and Marie start up a YouTube channel together. Will these junior high schoolers be able to confess their feelings for each other? Eh, yeah, probably. It's a fluff fic, what do you expect?





	The Sunday Funnies

A knock at the door downstairs made Patricia’s heart leap. They hardly got any other visitors, and today was a Saturday, so it just had to be her best friend in the world coming over for their next video. As usual, her mom was the one to answer the door, and while no words carried through to her bedroom, the sounds of delighted greetings did. Assuming no surprise visits from Aunt Gertrude here, that’d be Marie for sure!

Patricia raced down the flight of stairs to her family home’s main corridor, on the far side of which was indeed her best friend, maid outfit and all. The two of them ran to each other, jumping up and down in excitement as only little children normally could. Sometimes Patricia worried about being too old for such unrestrained glee, but Marie’s presence always made her feel comfortable enough anyways.

“Took ya long enough to show!” chastised Patricia, grin wide and tone jovial. “What, did the stockings trip ya up again?”

Marie’s soft smile was replaced with a restrained embarrassment, an expression that wouldn’t even count as such on more exuberant faces. “You know that was just that first time, Patricia. Is everything set up, though?”

“Of course, madam! Right this way~!” As the girl pulled her newly arrived friend up the stairs, her mother shouted up after them.

“I’ll message you when dinner’s done!”

That was practically the golden ticket to a free evening of fun. The both of them looked forward to Saturdays more than any other day, even more than other teenagers their age did. With their resolution to maintain their YouTube channel together as much as possible, they’d picked Saturday for collaborative video recording, and Sundays to upload said videos. The two of them also had independent content on the channel during the week, as their schedules allowed.

So far, their commitment to that resolution had been impressive. Marie was congratulated on her youthful talents by her family, and Patricia’s parents were overjoyed just to see their daughter having stuck with something for so long. With her dad tutoring her in video editing on the side, the household had a very positive feeling to it with regards to this extracurricular activity.

Shoving the door open carelessly, Patricia hit the lights and revealed a familiar scene to Marie: a room bordering on untidiness, bed pushed to one corner and a computer desk at the other. A small pile of clothes graced the floor at the foot of her bed, and the spare chair for Marie’s use was folded up against the wall.

“And to think this is the room of someone who dresses up as a maid,” Marie quipped, inflection hardly wavering. That just made it all the funnier to her friend, who let out a girlish giggle.

“It’s all in the _character_ , snookums!” she retorted, setting up the spare chair before turning on her computer. “Besides, even maids gotta have days where they’re not cleanin’ up the whole place.”

“And those days would be… every day, for you?”

“’Ey, you’re lucky I still have to change!” said Patty, slipping into her closet to get out of her school clothes and into the maid outfit they used as their schtick on YouTube.

As always, the girl’s heart was on fire, having Marie _right here_ in her room. In a characteristic internal monologue, Patricia joked to herself about how silly it was that she’d not gotten used to it after all these weekends. She didn’t even know what _it_ was, or perhaps didn’t want to say it. Once she emerged, however, Patty came face to face with her maid counterpart, who had not yet seated herself.

“Aww, waitin’ here for me?” she asked, feigning a flattered state. “Yer too kind.”

“It just seemed appropriate,” Marie shrugged her shoulders, pulling out her own chair to sit down in. Patty felt the whole thing fall a little flat, but that would be no damper on her mood this day.

“Feelin’ confident in the script by now, toots?” Patty kept it up with a smug grin, giving her somewhat aged computer another bit of time to wake up.

“Don’t worry, I think I’ve got it,” her partner nodded, that smile only fanning those flames Patricia kept feeling. As if to distract herself, she sat herself down all of a sudden, prompting Marie to follow suite.

The computer had had plenty of time to boot up fully by now, Patricia assessed. Dragging the mouse cursor over to their recording software, she set everything up for their latest session. Once the camera was rolling – and aimed properly at their faces this time – the two launched into their typical video intro.

“Welcome to the manor, masters and mistresses!” they said in mostly-perfect sync, having practiced it quite well by now. Then, Patty took over. “We’ve got a new treat for you folks out there today! Y’all’ve heard of ‘blind playthroughs’, but have you ever seen one where the lass behind the desk didn’t even know what was about to hit ‘er?!”

“In other words, Maid Peacock and I have each picked a game for the other to play,” Marie added in, raising one finger cutely. “Today’s video will be my choice-“

“-and next week, we’ll do mine!” Patty finished for her, jamming her thumb towards herself in a proud gesture.

Marie turned away from the camera to face her partner. “Now then, Maid Peacock, would you please cover up your eyes?”

“Sure thing, Miss Skullmaid!” she enthusiastically agreed, slipping on a pair of oversized white gloves and pressing them into her face. With most YouTubers, such energy would have to be faked, but Patricia was just genuinely this sort of person. She figured that was part of why her fans liked her, though they didn’t have too many viewers yet.

Once she was sure that her partner wasn’t looking, Marie pulled up her own Steam account on Patty’s computer. Typing in the password and waiting for things to get pulled up took a bit too long for them to be able to leave that in the video unedited, she mentally noted. Soon enough, though, her video game of choice was starting.

“Alright, you may look now.”

Once ‘Maid Peacock’ opened her eyes and pulled the gloves away, she was greeted by an introductory cutscene that seemed to be entirely animated in a cartoonish style. Marie knew _just_ what kind of thing she’d love to see, and that made her unbelievably happy.

“Woah, what kinda tune are we playin’ here!” she exclaimed, grinning ear to ear. “Who knew they made games for us classy folk that love cartoons?”

Turning back to the camera, Marie introduced her audience to the game. “This one is titled ‘Cuphead’. I’m sure many of you are already familiar with this one. It’s-“

“Aw, shucks, let’s just get right into the juicy stuff!” Patty interrupted, utterly enticed by the classic animation. Granted, it seemed a bit darker than her usual fare, having protagonists working for the Devil before the game even began, but a little diabolic pact-signing wasn’t gonna get in the way of her fun, either.

The tutorial was easy enough for her, even though she did struggle getting past one of the jumps for a couple seconds, something Marie capitalized on with her deadpan remarks for maximum humor value. Patty was soon diving right into the game proper, and her entire being buzzed with the energy unique to those being immersed in something they utterly love. In this case, it was obvious exactly which aspect of Cuphead the young faux-maid was infatuated with.

Things didn’t stay easy forever, unfortunately. As a game based heavily around boss battles, Patty quickly came upon her first one, exclaiming confidence in her own skills to the audience the whole time. Marie attempted to warn her, but to no avail, and the girl quickly came face-to-face with a projectile, knocking her digital avatar on its back.

“Oi what the heck was that!” she yelled half a second later. “Can’t a dame get even a little warnin’ around here?”

Marie giggled beside her, as muted as ever. “I believe that’s the entire point of the game, Maid Peacock.”

Patty’s frustration continued to grow as her very nature interfered with the gameplay. She was too impatient to rein herself in and memorize patterns, and as a result, she got hit very, very often. At first, Marie was laying on her typical amount of jokes and jabs, but as time went on and progress continued at its slow pace, she laid off a bit.

More importantly, the hour was no longer quite as conducive to continued play as it was when they started. Once their silent timer went off, the two of them made a note of it and Patty steered herself to a stopping point. Time for their outro, they decided.

“Well,” Marie began, “in spite of my fellow maid’s frustration, I’d say this was a nice look at the game, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Frustration? This was all just me gettin’ warmed up, dollface,” Patricia assured her, quickly returning to her former confidence. “We’ll get some more playtime during the week. Tune in next Sunday for _my_ pick!”

Synchronizing again, the two of them concluded, “Please return soon!”

Then, with a click, their recording software halted. Patty had a night of editing ahead of her again, and this time, she felt like getting her dad to help might not even be necessary – after all, she’d been picking up plenty of tricks lately. With all her homework completed the night before, things were looking absolutely perfect, but something still nagged at the back of her head.

“I hope that wasn’t too unpleasant for you, Patricia,” Marie said with a noticeable hint of concern. She didn’t like seeing her friend getting frustrated at things too much, even though it provided plenty of entertainment for others.

“Nah, you know how I am,” the girl assured her. “Is yer, uh- I mean, has yer mom stopped by yet? To pick you up?”

“I haven’t received a text from her yet, so I believe not. Besides, we haven’t eaten dinner yet, remember?”

“Oh- oh yeah, right! Duh, Patty, always forgettin’ the finer details!” she laughed at herself, trying to cover up her own complete disarray.

“Did you… Did you _want_ me to have left already?” questioned Marie, struck with an innocent sadness at the idea that her best friend would secretly feel that way.

“No!” she almost shouted in response, scrambling to erase that impression. “No, no no no!! I promise! I, uh, it was just- ya know, I’m really quite a scatterbrain, after all!”

“I wish you would not insult yourself so frequently…”

That got Patricia to quiet herself, at least for a minute. She fiddled with her own fingertips, entirely unsure of how to dig herself out of this mess she made for herself. All she knew was that she _definitely_ didn’t want Marie to walk away from this thinking they weren’t tighter than peas in a pod.

“Look, t-“ Patty began before interrupting herself, “- _Marie_. I like havin’ you around. A lot! I mean, what else could make a girl more excited and… and happy. Right? In fact, I think it gets me too excited- the, uh, having my YouTube partner around to shoot a video with, gets me… excited. Yeah.”

Things really started falling apart about halfway through that, and Patricia was acutely aware of that fact. It was about the best she could muster at the moment, though. Marie, for her part, was finally starting to piece things together, and she had a specific hunch about what was going on.

“Having an opportunity to record videos with someone else gets you excited?” she asked.

“I- yeah, I guess it does! See, you always get me!” Patricia quickly agreed, not quite feeling confident enough to say anything else.

“I mean, would you start acting like this around _anyone_ coming over to record with you?” Marie prodded, partially out to discover the truth and partially wanting to be validated as an especially noteworthy friend. Maybe something a little bit more.

“Mmmmmm…” It was all Patty could do to stall, but Marie’s gaze was insistent in spite of its continued placidity. Her eyes averted. “Maybe not as much, ya know?”

Marie sighed. This was getting difficult to pry through, and she wasn’t sure she knew _how_ to, at least not gently. Though she was never as outgoing and energetic as Patricia, she had her own well of courage, sometimes deeper than that of her best friend. Now, she decided, was the time to draw on it.

“Maybe it’s because… we like each other?”

In spite of not being a cartoon herself – as far as anyone could _tell_ – Patty’s reaction to that was about as cartoonish as you could get, jaw dropping while she somehow simultaneously fell out of her seat.

“I- you- _each other_?” she sputtered out, not even able to summon her typical repertoire of references that she otherwise would have. “I mean…” Patty righted herself and once again sat down, “…well, shoot! What’s a dame to do when she’s beat to the punch?”

Marie smiled as softly as she ever had. “Maybe you can just start by agreeing.”

Thankfully, an instant message from Patricia’s mother saved her from needing to go out of her way to be _mushy_ about it. Couldn’t hold up dinner, after all! Besides, they had the entire rest of high school to figure these things out.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks! A little oneshot here, completely unrelated to my main (and darker) project. This was something I wrote as a late birthday present for my friend ElectricNope, and is thus dedicated to him! Happy late birthday.


End file.
